It’s the smallest piece in digital leisure, however it’s progressively stepping up a gear. Over-the-top (OTT) audio content material accounts for about 2.3% of the overall time spent by Indians on on-line leisure choices, in response to a December 2021 report by RedSeer Administration Consulting. That is led by music. However different, smaller items in OTT audio like audio tales and podcasts are gaining traction, and drawing growing curiosity from paying shoppers, advertisers and traders. Final week, Kuku FM, a homegrown, audio-content platform, introduced a $19.5 million funding spherical
Two components are shaping this bounce in spoken-word content material. The primary is the stay-at-home tradition introduced on by the pandemic, which kicked in round March 2020. The second are homegrown, audio-only platforms like Pocket FM, Kuku FM and Pratilipi, which gathered momentum in early-2021 and are opening up this market in newer methods. They’re content material in languages past English in a giant manner and at new codecs like quick tales. Some additionally lean on content material generated by customers (versus content material generated by skilled creators).
Google Developments information allows a relative comparability of what customers are trying to find. Search information from India for the final three years exhibits that Audible, which streams audio variations of books accessible on Amazon, has persistently led in search curiosity. However since early-2021, audio platforms that pivot round non-English languages like Pocket FM and Kuku FM examine properly with Audible in search curiosity. Karnataka and Maharashtra, that are extra city in nature, lead search curiosity in Audible. By comparability, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand lead for Pocket FM and Kuku FM.
Past English
In accordance with Lal Chand Bisu, CEO of Kuku FM, lower than 100 million Indians can devour content material in English. Provides Kartik Sharma, a Jaipur-based radio jockey and creator of RJ Kartik Motivation, a podcast: “I’m a Hindi-speaking RJ. But additionally, the essence of sure content material is best delivered in a regional language.” Therefore, whereas the ten most-popular podcasts on Audible are all in English, these on Spotify and HT Smartcast (whose promoters additionally publish Mint) are a mixture of Hindi and English, and people on Kuku FM are all in Hindi. Pocket FM and Kuku FM permit for user-generated content material, and in a number of Indian languages.
Worth is another excuse for his or her rising recognition. An Audible subscription prices ₹2,388 per yr ( ₹199 per 30 days) for one audio e book per 30 days, with the choice to buy extra, and a few podcasts. Pocket FM and Kuku FM, alternatively, value ₹399 per yr, with entry to all audiobooks and podcasts.
Startup Enterprise
Startups within the audio-platforms house are additionally drawing investor curiosity. On this set, the utmost funding has been acquired by Pratilipi, of $81.6 million, in response to offers database Crunchbase. This Bengaluru-based firm, based in 2015, helps audio tales and user-generated content material in 12 languages. Kuku FM and Pocket FM, each based in 2018, have additionally raised exterior funds.
Kuku FM, which says it has 500,000 paying customers, began with podcasting in an interview format. It then moved to user-generated content material. In the end, it discovered stability in a enterprise mannequin that pivots round long-form collection content material—usually, 20-100 episodes—and consumer subscription. Says Bisu of Kuku FM: “Advert revenues are very tough in India, as 90% of the market is captured by Google and Fb. We requested 3,000-4,000 customers in the event that they had been prepared to pay, and we acquired a optimistic response from 85%.”
Quick Ahead
The RedSeer report cited above estimated India to have 95 million month-to-month lively customers of podcasts on the finish of 2021—a year-on-year progress of 34%. A PwC report, titled “The World Leisure and Media Outlook 2020-2024″, is bullish on progress of spoken-word content material in India. It initiatives month-to-month podcast listeners to develop at a mean 30.4% within the subsequent 5 years, helped by low subscription charges and information tariffs, voice search, and enterprise fashions that mix free-to-use and subscriptions.
In India, PwC estimates that revenues from this phase will enhance about 90% from $0.9 billion in 2020 to $1.7 billion in 2024. That’s about 5 occasions the expansion estimated globally, the place too consolidations and realignments are taking place. On 18 February, Spotify acquired two corporations specialising in applied sciences associated to advertising and marketing, promoting and analytics for audio content material. Play on.
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